Book: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective people
Author: Stephen R. Covey
The Author
Stephen R. Covey is the founder and chairman of Covey Leadership Center (CLC). He is a respected author, lecturer, teacher, and organizational consultant. He is known as an International Human Resources Consultant, holding a M.B.A. from Harvard and doctorate from Brigham Young University, where he was a professor of organizational behavior and business management. Another of his books, Principle-Centered Leadership, is one of the best-selling business books of the decade. Dr. Covey has received the Wilbur M. McFeely Award from the International Management Council for significant contributions to management and education, the 1994 International Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the 1994 Toastmaster’s International Top Speaker Award, and the 1994 Sales and Marketing Executives International Tops in Marketing Award. He has taught for more than 25 years to millions to individuals in business, government, and education. Sold more than seven million copies in 28 languages throughout the world, his present book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, is the synergic product of many minds when he was reviewing 200 years of success literature as part of his doctoral program in the middle seventies.
The Book
The book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is very powerful in changing lives. It gives ideas for improving personal and professional management in a very fundamental way and helps people to develop quality relationships with other people. It applies not only to individuals but also marriages, families, and businesses. After reading this book, people will have a better understanding of themselves and how they can take control of their own lives. It gives the ideas that communication is the key to success and effective communication is important. In this revolutionary guidebook for achieving one's peace of mind, the author's method is a pathway to wisdom and power.
To acquire seven habits and to internalize them, it is necessary to do these three things: learn well with one’s mind and work very diligently, teach it to others, and apply them and live them until they became part of one’s nature.
I found the book readable, interesting, and very practical for improving human nature. The author is successful in coming out and presenting the ways to achieve in a person’s life to one’s goal in a very practical way, without rushing.
Inside-out
Covey shows how the power of a paradigm shift when people understand a situation is different from what they observe. An example happened while travelling in a subway. Some children were making a lot of noise, and the author asked their father to keep them quiet. The man explained that they had just come from the hospital where their mother passed away. Immediately, the author changed his point of view (31). The solution to any problem, too, will be different when one understands the root. Instead of turning the attention of the children to an interesting game, the author used strength to allow them to play with the toys from her daughter (38-39).
Overview
The seven habits of highly effective people are based on the principles and ideas that seem to make sense to most human beings. A habit is a principle one should internalize, particularly if it is a habit of effectiveness. It is the combination of the three things: skill for how to do, knowledge for what to do and why to do, and attitude (desire) for want to do. It is the overlapping of knowledge, skill, and desire. The lack of any one of the three will not be a habit. These seven habits are basic; they are primary.
The author emphasizes the need to keep balance between Production of desired (P, getting something to work at present) and Production Capability (PC, the habit pattern combining of skill, knowledge, and attitude for future). This balance is the very essence of effectiveness. The author gave an example of a farmer who could not balance the "P/PC balance" and so, lost his favorite goose that gave a golden egg every day (52-54).
The first three habits are the character habits and will move from dependence through independence to interdependence through the personality habits in building relationship with other people. Covey emphasizes the importance of independence and interdependence and the need of mastering balance in all facets of life. Dependency is the attitude of needing others; independence is the attitude of the self-reliance; and interdependence is the attitude that requires their own effort and cooperation of others to get what they want. Effective interdependence can only be built on a foundation of true independence and self-mastery and self-discipline are the foundations of good relationships with others.
Habit 1
"Principle of Personal Vision"
Habit 1 is to be proactive. Proactivity means taking responsibility for everything that happens in their lives. Effective people are proactive; they will try to manage by themselves and do not depend on others while reactive people blame others. The basic nature is to act not to be acted upon. One's behavior is a function of his decisions, not his conditions. A proactive person exercises free will, the freedom to choose the response. However, we find that being proactive helps anybody expand his "Circle of Influence." Reactive people focus their efforts on the "Circle of Concern", over things they cannot control. They are affected by their physical and social environment. Their negative energy causes their "Circle of Influence" to shrink.
Habit 2
"Principle of Personal Leadership"
Beginning with the end in mind will give a personal direction to guide our daily activities with clear understanding of the destination. The most effective way to begin with the end in mind is to develop a personal mission statement, philosophy or creed, a statement of what one wants to be and to do. "Begin with the end in mind" is based on the principle that all things are created twice. The physical creation follows the mental creation. It is a kind of visualization followed by work.
Habit 2 helps to develop the personal leadership and it deals with direction. Management deals with speed, coordination, and logistics in going in the direction. Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. After one decides what the right things are to do, one wants to do them right. Then one must focus on efficiency.
Habit 3
"Principle of Personal Management"
Habit 3 is the personal management habit to put the first thing first. It is the exercise of independence to create a life congruent with our values, goals and mission. So, habit 1 and 2 are essential and prerequisites to habit 3. Time management is an essential skill for personal management. It is not to manage time but to manage oneself.
To gain control of the time in life, Covey has come out with four dimensions of time. It is the combination of two words: importance and urgency, so-called the time management matrix for maintaining the P/PC Balance. Important relates with one's mission roles and goals and urgent is that which is pressing upon you. The four dimensions of time matrix are:
First Quadrant: Urgent and important
Second Quadrant: Important but not urgent
Third Quadrant: Urgent but not important
Fourth Quadrant: Not urgent and not important
Quadrant II activities are important, but not urgent and is the heart of effective personal management. One cannot ignore urgent and important activities of Quadrant I, but it should eventually shrink with attention to Quadrant II.
To be proactive people, Quadrant II must be acted upon. All deep relationship building, such as planning and organization, personal preparation, exercises, reading, continued education, are in quadrant II. The first three habits, habit 1, 2, and 3, are to be independent, self-mastering, and self-discipline in short independence. They build your security and integrity to value system of life. Habits 4, 5, and 6 relate to interdependence.
Habit 4
"Principle of Interpersonal Leadership"
Think win/win is the attitude of seeking solutions so that everyone can win.
It is the one in which people can seek mutual benefit in all human interactions. Win/win is not the personality technique; it is total paradigm of human interaction. It comes from having character and maturity.
Win/win is being nice and is much tougher than win/lose. For it, one has not only to be nice but also to be courageous. One has to be not only to be emphatic but also to be confident, not only to be considerate and sensitive but also to be brave. It is the balance between courage and consideration. It is the balance between self-respect and respect to others. The alternative win/win is no deal.
Habit 5
"Principle of Emphatic Communication"
The main principle is to seek first to understand, then to to be understood. Apart from the four usual levels of listening—ignoring, pretending, selective listening or attentive listening—the author stressed the need of the fifth, the highest form of listening— empathic listening. One must listen with one's ears, eyes and heart. It inspires openness and trust. When we really, deeply understand each other, it is to open the door to creative solutions and third alternatives and they become the stepping stones to synergy.
Habit 6
"Principle of Creative Cooperation"
Habit 6, the habits of creativity of cooperation, is the exercise of the other habits. Synergy means the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It is teamwork, teambuilding, and the development of unity and creativity with other human beings. Synergy happens when two sides in dispute work together to come to a solution better than either side first proposed. Synergistic communication is opening your mind and heart to new possibilities. The essence of synergy is to value differences—to respect them, to build on strengths, to compensate for weakness. If synergy is not achieved, even the effort will usually result in a better compromise. The Seven Habits are also interrelated and are most powerful when used together.
Habit 7
"Principle of Balanced Self-Renewal"
Habit 7 is the habit of self-renewal and self-mentioning habit. By renewing the four dimensions of the nature—physical (i.e. to caring for the physical body), spiritual (to inspire and uplift the person and tie him to timeless truths of humanity), mental (to keep mind sharp), and social/emotional, one can work more quickly and effortlessly. It is related to personal vision, leadership and management. "Sharpening the saw" Habit 7 is pressing and enhancing the greatest asset that one has. The self-renewal process must include balances and renewal in all dimensions of the physiacal, the spiritual, the mental, and the social/emotional to organize one’s life so that one has time for quadrant II.
"The more proactive one is (Habit 1), the more effectively one can exercise personal leadership (Habit 2) and management (Habit 3) in his life. The more effectively one manage one’s life (Habit 3), the more Quadrant II renewing activities one can do (Habit 7). The more one seeks first to understand (Habit 5), the more effectively he can go into synergetic Win/Win solutions (Habit 4 and 6). The more one improves in any of the habits that lead to independence (Habit 1, 2, and 3), the more effective one will be interdependent situations (Habit 4, 5, and 6). Finally, renewal (Habit 7) is the process of renewing all the habits" (Habit 7, Sharpening the Saw, page 303). It is pathway to success, wisdom, and peace.
